too many crafts...

I didn't end up getting any craft books or kits for Christmas. It's probably just as well as I have so many projects at home to finish, not sure when I will get the time to do them!
I'm on my 8th hat now, still not bored by this type of knitting... Was thinking of maybe spicing some of the hats up with buttons on the brims.
I tried to make the loom scarf but something went wrong so I unraveled it and will have to try it again. Picking up how to knit the scarf is much harder than learning the hat pattern, which came to me without trouble.

fifth hat

I finished my fifth green hat (so relaxing) and started a multi-colored one. I want to give a green one to Beth for her birthday and the multi-colored one to Beth's daughter, Kelsey, whose birthday is about one week later. Here's a pic of me wearing one of the green ones at a bar in Stamford. The first photo is scenery from the bar, taken by Ash.

fourth hat

I'm on my fourth green hat, this one I'm making with a brim...This is so meditative and relaxing and addictive I have even been doing this at stop lights...It feels so good. Wonder if I could make a living doing this, selling these pretty things on http://www.etsy.com/index.php or something. I bought another ball of this green yarn because I want to knit some scarves, too, and perhaps a blanket. Also picked up today before work a multi-colored brighter skien, which will be fun, too.

more knitting

I am on my third loom knitting hat! So pretty, pretty pretty this green yarn I'm knitting with....Haven't worn it yet in public, but I will because it's so pretty, actually probably more pretty than warm! Hoping to finish the third hat today and then maybe will start on a scarf or try the purple yarn I had in my craft pile.

Borders

I was at Borders yesterday doing Christmas shopping and came across this huge craft kit for $20. It had rock painting, a sock puppet kit, friendship bracelets and clay art. I bought it and didn't tell Diane it was for myself, sometimes I'm so embarrassed at how much I love these kids' kits!

mandala

Was reading a description in Isabella's catalog - http://www.isabellacatalog.com/ - about mandalas and how healing they can be. I don't fully get why. But I do know that I love to color (yes, even as an adult)....I sort of doodle a lot and then shade in my doodles, which is often soothing. So I'm very tempted to buy a mandala coloring kit from Isabella...Instead, I decide to wait and ask for a gift card from them for Christmas....Meanwhile, I print out some mandala's online and bring them home and start coloring them in with colored pencils I have around the house. It's fun and soothing.
I also spend a lot of time this a.m. working on my second green loom hat....I'm going to make this one a little bigger than the first. I notice one mistake where I think I dropped a stitch or something. I hope I can figure out how to disguise this little mistake as I would love to give it to K for X-mas, that little stinker is starting to get hard to buy for! She cracks me up. She's 12 and all of a sudden says she doesn't want anything really for Christmas.

secret santa gifts

I submit my Christmas list to my Secret Santa group (my siblings, sister-in-law and family friends) and I do something different this time. I list a bunch of items like I usually do, like gift card to Whole Foods, Isabella, etc...but I also tell them I want craft books and kits and to surprise me with anything.

craft books

I submit my Christmas list to my Secret Santa group (my siblings, sister-in-law and family friends) and I do something different this time. I list a bunch of items like I usually do, like gift card to Whole Foods, Isabella, etc...but I also tell them I want craft books and kits and to surprise me with anything.

the real way to knit

My friend Linda shows me the real way to knit today....I show her my loom knit cap - she loves it, can't believe it came out so nice with the loom and she loves the yarn. But I'd like to be able to knit both ways. I want to finish two scarfs that I started the "real" way years ago...I take a quick break at work to move my car from the scary back lot to the area closer to the door and spend five minutes or so knitting before running back into the crazy newsroom So soothing. I eat at my desk everyday practically so I deserve a little break. In fact we are mandated to get breaks so I shouldn't feel guilty. On the way home, I buy another knitting loom, this one a long thin one which will allow me to make ponchos, blankets and scarfs. Also pick up a punch needle for a cat kit I bought a while back. What else? Hmmm, oh that's it for me. Bought a few gifts for the little ones in my life - Michaels has such great little kid gifts.

green knit cap

I finished loom knitting a very basic green cap...It came out very pretty, mainly because the yarn was a gorgeous cat's eye green with some soft yellow in it. It was a very simple cap but looks elegant.
Am starting to make another one, this one I will try to make a little bigger and will add a brim! Feel like I'm making progress, I have always wanted to knit and never got the hang of it. Even though this loom knitting isn't the real thing, at least it's a start. Eventually, maybe I will learn to knit beautiful kaffe fassett sweaters-http://www.kaffefassett.com/. I salivate over his stuff.

craft meet up

just signed up for a craft meet-up, meets in new haven, i think this will be a fun way to meet some nice friends and maybe even get more crafts done!

Wish I could craft all day!

Don't really want to go to work tomorrow. Would rather stay home and craft, craft, craft. Have so many projects, so little time.

I want to make everyone's Christmas present this year. It's a goal of mine everyear to at least make a few and it usually works out that way. This year, I'm not sure, though, as life is so hectic.

I did buy citric acid at the health food store, just happened to see it while I was shopping for lunch, and so I picked it up for the bath salts I wanted to make for someone on my X-mas list. (Can't say who just in case she's reading!)

challenging old beliefs

I used to think it was copying. Now I realize it's inspiration. We need inspiration from others, need outside ideas to be stimulated, to give us juice to create our own vision.
I was driving on Main Street today, looking at a flag I have seen many times before. I had been thinking all morning about my flower designs and when I saw the flag, it hit me, I could make a flag design using my flowers.
Some artists, like Monet and Manet, are inspired by beautiful outdoor scenes in France. I'm not that type of artist (I can't draw to save my life. This is one of the reasons I never thought I was creative. That's another belief of mine that I have challenged). But I get now that we need to be around beautiful things to create our own gorgeous things. I used to be so hard on myself, thinking it all had to come from the inside. When I created something based on something that had been done before, I thought it was unoriginal and not worthy.
Like the old me would have thought the flag/flower idea was stupid. You're copying the flag, how silly is that. But now I realize the many ways that's original, it's a twist on an old delicious symbol. I bet even Betsy Ross would think it was cool.
This is what I love about this blogging community! All the beautiful ideas and colors and pretty things to look at! It's like candy for my creative soul.
Now I just need a better camera, that cardboard one isn't going to cut it, I realize!

balloons!

Well that was a blast!
I put the how to make balloon kit in the car in the bag of returns.
Was going to take it to Barnes and Noble one of these days. (I mean how many kits can I keep. When am I going to find the time to do all these).
But like the kid I am, I just want to do everything (and I knew the kids would love this kit, too). So I took the balloons out of the car at Beth's house today and me and the kids had a great time! At first it was frustrating because the pump that came with the kit didn't work. We tried blowing the skinny balloons ourselves, but to no avail. (Try it, you'll see what I mean! They aren't like the "fat" balloons.) Sammi got her dad's soccer pump and that worked better, except for the occasional hole in the balloon. It took some work, but after a few hours of on and off balloon making, I was able - with one kid reading me the directions and another helping me to hold the balloon - to make dogs. I got that down! Now I have another hobby to obsess over!

dish towels from martha stewart

I realize today as I take out the bright and colorful MS towels that I bought from K-Mart a year or more ago, that I am obsessed with dish towels. I love looking at these colors, have been saving these forever, often thinking about them. I mean they are only towels, yet the thought and look of them is inspiring and beautiful. I think to myself, maybe this is one area where I do scrimp that I shouldn't. That instead of waiting til the existing towels get really faded, I should replace them sooner.

so many crafts, so little time

I overwhelm myself this weekend (must be a stressful week at work)...I buy so many things at the craft store and at barnes and noble that I can't possibly do them all...I will have to return the origami jewelry kit and the balloon making kit and maybe even the cat training kit.
I did buy glycerin in the solid form, which I use to make soap that turned out kinda neat, but not neat enough that I would buy it if I saw it in a store. They were pretty, in the shapes of muffins, and cinamonny, yet they do have proplene glycol in them (bad!) and are drying (I couldn't find any with more natural ingredients). I need to learn more about soapmaking before I find something I truly would want to use my own bod.
I also buy a knitting loom...all my attempts at knitting have been unsuccessful in the past. I would start something, but then screw up and couldn't figure out how to get back on the horse. But this loom looks really easy. So I buy one and start making a hat. I buy some really pretty yarn in a beautiful green, the color of my cat's eye's kinda green. I start that and it is truly easy. I figure this out on my own.

blogging

I am starting to feel so energized by the work of other crafters out there.
I wish crafting blogs were around when I was in high school. I was just as obsessed with crafts back then, but had no friends who were into them, and so I sort of suppressed my craft passion. I mainly crafted on my own or with my mom or aunt. I made lots of embroidery towels and pillowcases back then and gave them as gifts, but it was always hard to find pretty and cool patterns. Sometimes I created my own.
I wasn't artistic in the sense that I couldn't draw, can't draw. But I always had the urge to create, to make beautiful things with color and fabrics and thread and paints too, but not in the sense of someone like Renoir who can paint a beautiful scene.
Now I realize there are so many people out there to connect with online. So many beautiful blogs! I'm inspired to make mine beautiful as well!

so that worked!

finally...i've been playing with the computer for like an hour and finally figure out how to upload these potholders that i made for erin's shower. well, not bad, i guess, for a cardboard camera. i'll be uploading some more photos that i developed from that camera. and in the meantime, i think i'm going to get a digital camera!
i'm going to try to upload one more photo, this time i think i will try to upload the computer cake (which says Be Obscure Clearly) that I made for the newsroom.

let's see

glycerin

This is hilarious, all the snow globe recipes that call for glycerin say you can find it in a drugstore. I have never seen glycerin in a drugstore in my life. At CVS tonight, the staff agrees they have never seen glycerin in their drugstore, but one nice staffer who used to work at Michael's craft store says I can find it there probably. While I'm at CVS I pick up some mineral oil, because that is what one of the "recipes" calls for. I do want to try it all the different ways, including the way where you make it with clear corn syrup. Let's see which works best.
For some reason I have a thing for snow globes. When I look in my pile of crafty ideas that I have collected over the years I found three different recipes for "How to make snow globes." One was from Martha Stewart, another from a craft magazine from way back, not even sure the name of the magazine, and the other I had handwritten, copied from somewhere, not sure where. Two of the craft books I just took out of the library also have directions on how to make snow globes. So I will give the different ways a whirl and report back.
I also am inspired when I see on a blog I just discovered that the creator of this blog is into snow globes too. She makes a very pretty one and this week it's on her site, called prettylittlethings (http://prettylittlethings.typepad.com/)

make my own soap!

I am so inspired to make a living doing something green and healthy and creative. My career since college has been great, but it's so stressful. There has to be a healthier way to earn a living. Driving back from Woodstock, N.Y., today I had the idea to make my own soap, I would call it "Karen's (Karen means pure in Greek) Blissed Out Soap bar," and "Karen's zoned out body oil," and "Karen's () body scrub." You get the idea! This is so exciting!

book art

When I got home Friday night after bad date, I have urge to create so bad. I pull out the directions for "book art" I had seen in Mary Engelbreit "Home Companion" catalog. I'm going to do some today and when I figure out how to post photos, I will post some! So looking forward!!!!

the dearth

Work has been so crazy this week, filling in for the editor on vacation, that I don't get much time to do creative things and it's a huge bummer. I do get to edit at work, which is somewhat creative, but nothing like the projects I could be doing at home.

computer cake

The cake turned out really good. People loved it. I was afraid they wouldn't be able to figure out what it was, but everyone knew. Though everyone in the newsroom thought I was the one who thought up "Be obscure clearly," which I wrote on that computer screen. I can't believe I was the only one who learned in J-school that it was E.B. White's famous saying.
Hey, I guess that's a compliment-people think I am as witty as E.B. White!

computer cake!

Okay, so even though I gave up sugar and processed foods and foods with dyes, etc., I still have the urge to bake cakes. There is almost more of an urge now. (Maybe it's my way of getting my fill of sweets vicariously or something like that). So I volunteered for this week's "coffee hour" at work. I just have the urge to decorate, create. I decided on a computer cake theme. Let's see how it comes out.